Spotlight
by Lostinthewhoniverse
Summary: Annabeth burst into the backstage ten minutes late, causing all eyes to turn to her. "Uh," she started. "I got the part?" ** Percabeth Theater AU
1. Chapter 1

Annabeth burst into the backstage ten minutes late, causing all eyes to turn to her.

"Uh," she started. "I got the part?"

Silence.

Then, all at once, people started talking.

"I told you you'd get it! Nico, you owe me ten bucks." Thalia Grace, one of Annabeth's best friends.

"Stop betting on other people's lives, Thalia. Congrats, Annie." Piper, Annabeth's other best friend. She got a slap for using that name.

"I can't deal with this bull." Percy Jackson. Not one of Annabeth's friends.

"Okay, children. We can discuss this after tonight's performance. By the looks of it, this will be the last one in this company for some of us. Let's make it count." Chiron, Annabeth's favorite stage director. He rolled over to Annabeth in his wheelchair, and she bent down to give him a hug.

"Congratulations, Annabeth. I'm proud of you." He told her. Annabeth smiled at him and took a step back. Chiron addressed the group of students before him.

"Today's casting changes. Katie Gardner is out with the flu today, so Annabeth, you'll be playing Zoe Murphy, which means Piper will be taking Annabeth's role of Cynthia. Everyone else is here, so go get ready, your half hour call in in fifteen minutes.

Annabeth held in the groan that was fighting to escape her throat. Don't get her wrong, she loved Dear Evan Hansen, and she loved playing Zoe, especially with the songs that came with the part, but she did not love who played Evan, Percy Jackson.

As you may have gathered from earlier statements, Percy hated her, and Annabeth him. Annabeth wasn't sure what started the unfriendly rivalry, but she was sure he started it.

Annabeth was snapped out of her thoughts when Piper started dragging her to the dressing rooms. That was one good thing about performing for a company; even if it's just a local youth company, they had actual dressing rooms, instead of the cleared out classrooms that you would get in a school.

Granted, they weren't the best. They were on a budget. But at least the building was actually made for musicals.

"At least this is the last night I'll ever have to see Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, trying to lift her own mood. It didn't work as well as she hoped.

"Yeah, after a night of playing his girlfriend," Piper said, smirking. For a reason only God himself knew, Piper wanted the two of them to end up together. Yeah, because that will happen.

"They're only dating for like, a fourth the time or something." Annabeth huffed.

Piper rolled her eyes.

"Still, Percy has to pretend to be completely in love with you the entire time. That's going to be hilarious to watch." She laughed. "You know, with his attitude earlier, he would make a perfect Connor. "

"Can he?" Annabeth asked jokingly. "Because then he'll be dead the entire time."

The two girls walked into the dressing room laughing. This was something Annabeth was going to miss when she left.

After a tearful last curtain call, Annabeth made her way back to the dressing room in order to change out of her costume. It wasn't really a costume, per say, but an outfit they bought at Walmart. Either way, it still belonged to the theater.

Annabeth had gotten the entire cast and tech crew to sign her playbill. Well, everyone except Percy. She was glad to finally be rid of him, she didn't need to be reminded of him.

Unfortunately, said boy decided to intercept her on her way to the dressing rooms.

"What do you want, Jackson?" Annabeth asked irritably.

"Aren't you going to ask me to sign your playbill?" He asked. "Thought you'd want to remember everyone from this company."

"Not you." She said. "I'm glad to finally be able to get rid of you. It's one of the only good things coming out of me leaving."

"If you're so sad about leaving, then why are you doing it? It's like you're asking for depression."

"If you were anyone else, I'd think you were trying to get me to stay so you could keep seeing me everyday." Annabeth said. Percy flushed, most likely from anger.

"Jokes on you, I'm leaving as well. I came here to ask if you'd sign my playbill." He said.

"Why? I thought you hated me." Annabeth didn't think, she knew, but Percy was being really confusing. Normally he wanted nothing to do with her. Earlier, before the show, he'd tried to get Chiron have Piper play Zoe for the day. It didn't work of course. Piper didn't know any of the lines.

"Please, Annabeth? I'm trying to leave us on good terms here." Percy pleaded, holding his playbill out. Okay, was he on some sort of weird new drug that Annabeth hadn't heard of?

"It's a little late for that," Annabeth grumbled, taking the paper anyway. She signed it and handed it back to him, hoping he'd leave. He didn't.

"What now?" She asked. She didn't know how much longer she could stand being near him. Performing on stage with him every night for the past couple weeks had been bad enough. Actually talking to him? No thank you.

"Aren't you going to ask me to sign your's?" Percy asked for the second time that night. Annabeth rolled her eyes and took her playbill out of her pocket, handing it to him.

"If it will make you leave faster." She said. Percy laughed and signed the paper quickly.

"See you around," he said, handing the paper back to her, and left.

"Not if I can help it!" Annabeth shouted to his retreating figure. She swore she could hear him laugh. She turned around and started walking back to the changing rooms, suddenly in the mood for some McDonald's.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Annabeth woke to the sound of her phone blasting the opening number to Hamilton. She reached for the cursed object, and groaned when she saw what time it was. Why in the world would she set an alarm for six AM?

Then she remembered.

For the past week or so, Annabeth had been attending auditions for a new musical, called Spotlight. The musical was still in the workshop stage, and Annabeth was excited to see where it would go.

It was about two dancing rivals, Jayda and Shane, who fall in love. Completely cliche, but that's what drew Annabeth to it. She loved cheesy musicals.

Annabeth could tell her already crazy schedule was about to get even crazier, though. Today, for example.

First, at eight AM, she had to go to the studio to meet up with the rest of the cast for a read through of the script.

Then, the cast was going out for an early lunch in order to get to know each other.

After that, Annabeth had to go to the high school and unregister herself from the upcoming school year, seeing as she was going to be homeschooled so that she could work full time on this musical.

Lastly, later in the afternoon, the producer, Dionysus Whyne, or Mr. D, as he introduced himself, wanted the main cast back at the studio so they could learn act one. Annabeth had a feeling he would be a slave driver at times.

Annabeth thrived when she was kept busy. She blamed her ADHD. She constantly had to be moving, or she would be really annoying to others.

Looking around her room, Annabeth realized how much of a mess it had become the past week when she was doing her auditions. There was a basket full of dirty laundry, and she had brought out her box of playbills the night before.

When she was little, they used to have a play almost five times a year. Then when Annabeth was about eight, she started getting into musical theater, and the number of playbills she got per year decreased. Still, she had way too many.

She also noticed that she never threw away her McDonald's from the previous night.

Annabeth took her time getting ready, having given herself extra time just in case. She stopped by the kitchen on the way out of the house, intending to make herself some coffee, but was surprised to see her dad sitting at the island, reading the daily paper.

"Good morning, Annabeth," her dad said when he noticed her walk in. "What are you doing up so early?"

Annabeth tried not to be disappointed that he had already forgotten her new role.

"I told you yesterday I got the part in that new musical, remember?" She said. She really shouldn't be surprised that he forgot. He never payed attention to her, not since her mom died. Instead, he wasted all his time and energy on his job and Annabeth's half brothers, Matthew and Bobby. Annabeth figured it was because she looked just like her mom when she was her age. It still didn't make it okay.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth. I forgot. Congratulations." Her dad turned back to the paper, seemingly done talking to her.

"It's fine," she sighed. "I'd better get going, don't want to be late."

"Okay, have fun."

Annabeth grabbed her keys off of the table and walked out the door. She could get coffee on the way.

Annabeth walked into one of the many buildings in New York that housed studios for various musicals and plays, having finally got her coffee. She was now assured she wouldn't kill anyone on her first day.

The building probably, okay definitely, didn't host the best quality of studios, those belonged to shows that were actually on Broadway, but it was something. Sort of. She hadn't actually seen any of the studios, but that would change in a few minutes. The thought made Annabeth even more excited to get started.

She walked up to the front desk, where an attendant sat behind it.

"Studio 3b?" Annabeth asked, double checking the address and studio number she had written down the previous day.

"Name?" The attendant asked brightly. Annabeth wondered how someone could be that happy at 7:45 AM.

"Annabeth Chase."

No, Annabeth didn't say that. Rather, a very (unfortunately) familiar voice. She turned around to see Percy Jackson walking up to the desk. She apparently couldn't have one day where she didn't have to see him.

"What are you doing here, Jackson?" Annabeth asked.

"I work here." He responded.

"No you don't, you spend all your time at the theater."

"I told you I left." He turned to the desk attendant. "Studio 3b, please."

Annabeth felt like getting sick. It was just her luck for him to be working on the same musical. Hopefully he wasn't contracted to work in the off-Broadway show, if they got one, like she was. Maybe he was tech? No, Percy couldn't even flip a light switch to save his life. Besides, the tech people weren't even coming in today.

"Name?" The attendant asked Percy with the same cheeriness she did Annabeth.

"Percy Jackson." He told her. The attendant handed both of them an I.D. badge.

"Good luck to both of you." The attendant said, and Annabeth thanked her, walking off towards the elevator. Percy followed her.

"What are you doing?" She asked when he tried to get into the elevator.

"Uh, trying to get to the third floor?" He responded. Annabeth gave him a weird look. Normally he wouldn't even be in the same room with Annabeth if he could help it.

"Well, you can wait for the elevator to come back down, thanks." She told him. Percy just rolled his eyes, pushing past her anyways and pressing the third floor button.

"That would be wasting energy. I thought you'd know that, miss 'Perfect Straight A's'." Percy said. There it was, an insult. Annabeth was starting to get worried for his health. Actually, she wouldn't care anyways, as long as he didn't get her sick.

"Whatever, just don't talk to me." Annabeth said. Percy did a two finger salute.

"Yes, Ma'am." Annabeth sent him a glare, and he shut up.


	3. Chapter 3

The elevator made a dinging sound, signaling that they had arrived on the third floor. As soon as the door was open, Annabeth was out, walking down the hallway and searching for studio 3b.

Annabeth knew it was rude to leave Percy behind like that, but she really couldn't care less. The two of them had hated each other for over half of their lives, and now Percy was trying to be civil? Annabeth thought it was disgusting. She figured it was some sort of prank, it wouldn't be the first time.

Annabeth found the door she was looking for and walked in, slamming the door in Percy's face, who had been trailing behind her after catching up. She heard an indignant cry of "Hey!" before the electronic lock clicked again and Percy walked in, looking irritated. Good.

Mr. D saw the two walk in and scowled.

"Finally, I was beginning to think the two of you would never show up." He said.

"We're fifteen minutes early." Annabeth said, confused.

"Whatever, Anniebelle." Percy snickered behind Annabeth. "Here's your script. You too, Perry Johannsen."  
This time, Annabeth laughed. She took the script from Mr. D and walked over to where a couple others were standing.

"Uh, hi?" Annabeth said awkwardly. The two people turned to her.

The first person was a girl, about Annabeth's age, maybe a year or two older. She had long caramel colored hair, and she was wearing a simple white dress with Greek style sandals. She almost looked like a Greek goddess, if they existed.

The second person was a boy, also Annabeth's age, with brown hair and wisps of a beard starting to grow. Annabeth recognized him immediately.

"Grover!" Annabeth exclaimed, pulling him into a hug which he automatically reciprocated. Annabeth hadn't seen him since he left the theater four years ago to accept a role in a Broadway show.

"Hey, Annabeth!" Grover said, releasing her. "How have you been?"

"Great! We just did Dear Evan Hansen, which was a lot of fun."

"Let me guess, you played Zoe?" Annabeth laughed.

"Only on the last day, but I actually played Cynthia. Besides, Percy played Evan. You actually think I could survive playing Zoe the entire time?"

"What about me?" Percy interrupted. Annabeth rolled her eyes, promptly turning away from the conversation.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth." She said to the girl who was standing next to Grover.

"I noticed," the girl laughed. "I'm Calypso."

Behind her, Annabeth could hear Grover and Percy's conversation.

"Still at it with Annabeth, then?" Grover was saying.

"Unfortunately," Percy said. Annabeth rolled her eyes at that. "I tried talking to her yesterday, and I even got here early hoping to talk to her, but she seems really adamant to hate me."

"You've only got yourself to blame for that, man."

Annabeth sighed, annoyed at Percy. Obviously she hated him. Besides, he hated her too. Right? They always argued, pulled tricks during rehearsal, and flat out insulted each other at every possible moment.

"I see you know those two," Calypso said, pulling Annabeth out of her thoughts. "Anything I should know?"

"Well, Grover's alright. That's the one with the brown hair. Percy, however," Annabeth trailed off, looking at the two boys. Percy turned to her at that moment and gave her his trademark troublemaker smile before turning back to Grover. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Percy's nothing but trouble. I would stay away from him at all costs." Annabeth finally told her.

"Why? He seems nice enough." Calypso reasoned. Annabeth sighed theatrically.

"You poor, sweet, naïve child. Just you wait until he gets comfortable and shows his true colors."

Calypso laughed, causing Annabeth to laugh as well. Grover and Percy looked at them.

"Talking about us?" Percy asked coyly.

"Actually, yes, we are." Annabeth replied.

"All good things, I hope." Annabeth snorted.

"About Grover, yes." She said smirking, causing Percy to roll his eyes.

"Whatever, Chase," Percy said, walking over to the circle of chairs in the center of the room.

"If you believe that he's trouble, then why were you flirting with him?" Calypso asked Annabeth when Percy and Grover were out of earshot.

"I wasn't flirting with him," Annabeth said defensively. Calypso gave her one of those "I know you're lying but I'll let it pass" looks. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything to further defend herself as Mr. D started talking.

"Alright, people, sit in the circle, and let's get this read through over with. We have three hours, so we're going through the script twice, without the songs both times. We'll do music tomorrow. Got it?"

Everyone did as Mr. D said, not really seeing a reason not to.

The first scene included Annabeth's character, Jayda, Jayda's mother, named Leslie; she was played by a woman in her late thirties named Hestia. The scene also included Jayda's best friend, Rose. Calypso played Rose, which Annabeth was happy to learn.

The scene lasted about five minutes, and soon Annabeth heard Percy talking. She immediately looked at her script, trying to figure out who he played.

No way.

Annabeth re-read and then re-re-read the name, hoping that there was another character whose name looked similar to Shane, because then she could blame her dyslexia, but unfortunately, Annabeth wasn't that lucky.

Annabeth looked up from the papers in her hand to glare at Percy, and he caught her stare, smirking. Annabeth just hardened her glare before turning to look at Calypso, who was obviously trying not to laugh. Annabeth glared at her too. Was nobody on her side today?


	4. Chapter 4

After the three hours were over, everyone was piling into cars to go to lunch. Anyone who didn't have a ride had to go with Mr. D, and that's why Calypso approached Annabeth almost immediately after they were dismissed.

"Can I _please_ ride with you?" Calypso asked Annabeth, practically begging. Annabeth shrugged, putting her script folder into her bag.

"I don't care, but I have an errand I need to run before we come back to the studio this afternoon."

"What kind of errand?"

"I have to go to the high school to deregister myself for this fall so that I can be homeschooled."

"You're going to Goode?" A new voice said from behind Annabeth, and she rolled her eyes, turning to face him.

"Yeah, why?"

"I need a ride," Percy replied shrugging. "I also need to go to Goode and deregister as well. I won't be able to do that if I ride with Mr. D.'

"Give me one good reason to let you ride with me."

"You're a nice person?" Annabeth sighed, and then realized something he said.

'You're in the off-Broadway, aren't you?" Percy only grinned. "Okay, fine. You can come with us, but only because I am _not_ in the mood to argue with you."

"Shot gun!" Percy called, running out of the building.

"Flirting," Calypso muttered. Annabeth rolled her eyes and followed Percy where he had run out, reaching for her keys. Calypso followed. "Hey, wait a minute, I'm in the off-Broadway, too!"

Annabeth grinned. At least _something_ was going good today.

Lunch was chaos. Mr. D had decided that it would be easier to eat at a family style restaurant, rather than letting everyone order for themselves, so there was always someone reaching over someone else for the macaroni or "Who took the last roll?" It almost reminded Annabeth of her previous company whenever they would have meals before shows. She missed that.

To make matters worse, seating was assigned by roles, so _of course_ Annabeth _had_ to sit next to Percy. Thankfully, however, that also meant that she was sitting next to Calypso as well, and Grover was only a couple seats down.

"And then, she runs in like, twenty minutes late-"

"It was ten, thank you," Annabeth interrupted Percy's retelling of their last show. "I wasn't _that_ late."

"Details, details," Percy replied. "Anyways, so everyone's congratulating her, apparently forgetting about me. Chiron, our stage director, calls everyone's attention because our Zoey had the _flu_. Still salty about that."

"Because _I_ was the understudy for Katie. He had to pretend to be in love with me for the entire show, and Piper was right, that was hilarious."

"Who said he was pretending?" Grover muttered, and Percy glared at him.

"Have you seen her?" Percy said, and Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"You don't look any better, Seaweed Brain."

" _Seaweed Brain_?" Percy asked, confused.

"Yeah, your brain is obviously made of seaweed."

"Well, you're such a.. a.." Annabeth smirked.

"I'm such a what?"

"A.. Wise Girl!"

"Wow, I'm so offended," Annabeth said, putting her hand to her heart. Percy glared at her.


End file.
